Abstract
The present article examines the wooden board maps unearthed from Tomb 1 at the Fangmatan 放馬灘 site from the perspective of water transport in the forest regions. The locations of the textual annotations can be clarified by the correspondence between the tributaries of the antique maps and the present-day river system. The maps are read in the following order: (older contents) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; and (newer contents) 7, 6. The seven maps reflect the southward journey of the Qin people’s timbering and other resource extraction: up the Dongke River 東柯河, across the watershed, and southward deep into the Huamiao River 花廟河 area. Fangmatan was a transportation hub positioned above the watershed, and the tomb occupant was an official who managed the area’s land and water transport of timber. Following the unification of the Qin, large-scale construction projects expanded the timber supply networks, driving said southward expansion and the development of transport routes depicted on the wooden board maps. More generally, this acute demand for transportation led to a boom in water transport in the Qin dynasty. The land and water routes seen on the maps developed into the point for the “transportation of all timber from the Shu and Jing” 寫蜀、荊地材皆至 in the later years of the reign of Qin Shi Huang (r. 221–210 BCE). The unchecked expansion of Qin’s advantages in water transport led to its excessive scale and an overdrawing of resources, which ultimately sowed the seeds of “all under heaven beginning to rebel against the Qin dynasty” 天下始畔秦.
Keywords
Fangmatan wooden board maps; timbering; water transport; Qin Shi Huang; construction projects
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